Magnetized liner inertial fusion platform development to assess performance scaling with drive parameters

Magnetized liner inertial fusion (MagLIF) experiments have demonstrated fusion-relevant ion temperatures up to 3.1 keV and thermonuclear production of up to 1.1 × 1013 deuterium–deuterium neutrons. This performance was enabled through platform development that provided increases in applied magnetic field, coupled preheat energy, and drive current. Advanced coil designs with internal reinforcement enabled an increase from 10 to 20 T. An improved laser pulse shape, beam smoothing, and thinner laser entrance foils increased preheat energy coupling from less than 1 to 2.3 kJ. A redesign of the final transmission line and load region increased peak load current from 16 to 20 MA. The wider range of input parameters was leveraged to study target performance trends with preheat energy, applied magnetic field, and peak load current. Ion temperature and neutron yield generally followed trends in two-dimensional clean Lasnex calculations. Stagnation performance improved with peak load current when other input parameters were also increased such that convergence was maintained. This dataset suggests that reducing convergence to less than 30 would improve predictability of target performance. Lasnex was used to identify a simulation-optimized scaling path, which suggests 10+ kJ of fusion yield is possible on the Z facility with achievable input parameters. This path also indicates >10 MJ could be generated through volume burn on a future facility with a path to high yield (>200 MJ) using cryogenic dense fuel layers. The newly developed MagLIF platform enables exploration of both this simulation optimized scaling path and a recently developed similarity-scaling path.

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Publication Details

Journal
Physics of Plasmas
Published
2025-03-01
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0253541
Citations
3
Primary Topic
Laser-Plasma Interactions and Diagnostics
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
5.61

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article

Magnetized liner inertial fusion platform development to assess performance scaling with drive parameters

J. M. Woolstrum, G. A. Chandler, C. E. Myers, M. Lowinske et al.
3 citations
Physics of Plasmas
Laser-Plasma Interactions and Diagnostics
5.61
article

Magnetized liner inertial fusion platform development to assess performance scaling with drive parameters

J. M. Woolstrum, G. A. Chandler, C. E. Myers, M. Lowinske, Ella Suzanne Field, G. K. Robertson, M. E. Cuneo, Marc-Andre Schaeuble, Matthias Geißel, M. R. Gómez, T. J. Awe, G. A. Rochau, Christopher Jennings, William Lewis, David Yager-Elorriaga, Derek C. Lamppa, Michael Mangan, Matthew Weis, R. D. McBride, Jeffrey Fein, Gabriel Shipley, S. A. Slutz, D. J. Ampleford, Jonathon Shores, D. B. Sinars, M. C. Jones, K. Whittemore, Andrew Porwitzky, Jerry Crabtree, John S. Taylor, Félix Sánchez, A. J. Harvey-Thompson, M. E. Savage, C. Aragon, I. C. Smith, D. E. Ruiz, B. T. Hutsel, L. Perea, Stephanie B. Hansen, Patrick Knapp, K. Tomlinson, S. W. Cordaro, Boyana Norris, J. Jackson, Kris Beckwith, R. R. Paguio, Eric Harding, Kyle Peterson, Jens Schwarz, C. S. Speas, Patrick K. Rambo, Larry Lucero, Owen Mannion, G. E. Smith, D. C. Rovang, J. L. Porter, Edmund Yu, R.J. Kaye, K. A. Benavidez
article en
3 citations

Abstract

Magnetized liner inertial fusion (MagLIF) experiments have demonstrated fusion-relevant ion temperatures up to 3.1 keV and thermonuclear production of up to 1.1 × 1013 deuterium–deuterium neutrons. This performance was enabled through platform development that provided increases in applied magnetic field, coupled preheat energy, and drive current. Advanced coil designs with internal reinforcement enabled an increase from 10 to 20 T. An improved laser pulse shape, beam smoothing, and thinner laser entrance foils increased preheat energy coupling from less than 1 to 2.3 kJ. A redesign of the final transmission line and load region increased peak load current from 16 to 20 MA. The wider range of input parameters was leveraged to study target performance trends with preheat energy, applied magnetic field, and peak load current. Ion temperature and neutron yield generally followed trends in two-dimensional clean Lasnex calculations. Stagnation performance improved with peak load current when other input parameters were also increased such that convergence was maintained. This dataset suggests that reducing convergence to less than 30 would improve predictability of target performance. Lasnex was used to identify a simulation-optimized scaling path, which suggests 10+ kJ of fusion yield is possible on the Z facility with achievable input parameters. This path also indicates >10 MJ could be generated through volume burn on a future facility with a path to high yield (>200 MJ) using cryogenic dense fuel layers. The newly developed MagLIF platform enables exploration of both this simulation optimized scaling path and a recently developed similarity-scaling path.

Physics of PlasmasVol. 32(3)
Sandia National Laboratories (US), General Atomics (United States) (US)
National Nuclear Security Administration, Sandia National Laboratories
Affordable and clean energy
Openalex Percentile: Top 6%
Laser-Plasma Interactions and Diagnostics
5.61
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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